Former lab employee carried 'vectors of human disease': Customs

A researcher recently based at Winnipeg's virology laboratory is in police custody in North Dakota after allegedly trying to smuggle vials of an unidentified biological substance into the U.S. from Manitoba.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers allegedly found Konan Yao carrying 22 vials of what court papers describe as "vectors of human disease" in the trunk of a car he was driving en route to a Maryland laboratory when he arrived at a Pembina, N.D. port of entry on May 5.

Yao, a 42-year-old Canadian who has told U.S. authorities that he worked on a fellowship at Winnipeg's federal National Microbiology Laboratory until last January, is charged with smuggling the material for which court documents say he had neither declared at the border, nor produced proper documents for.

According to the documents filed in U.S. District Court, Yao has told authorities -- including an FBI agent based in Grand Forks, N.D. -- that he had worked on a vaccine for the deadly Ebola virus and HIV at the high-security Winnipeg lab, and that he stole the 22 vials "because he did not want to start his research over from the beginning" after arriving for his next planned fellowship with the National Institutes of Health at the Biodefense Research Laboratory in Bethesda, Md.

U.S. customs officers found the vials -- containing the substance which has not been publicly identified -- in a glove wrapped in aluminum foil and in a plastic bag.

If convicted, the charge brings a possible sentence of 20 years in prison, the court documents state.

Yao made a court appearance in North Dakota on May 8. His lawyer Richard Henderson, a Fargo, N.D.-based federal public defender, could not be reached for comment.

In an e-mail to the Sun, Jirina Vlk, a spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada, which operates the Winnipeg lab charged with researching the Ebola, Marburg and H1N1 viruses, said that "at no time did (Yao) have access to Level 3 or 4 pathogens -- ever -- AND strict controls, as per our protocols, are enforced at all times."

Vlk said Yao only worked with non-infectious material and had the appropriate secret security clearance for his work. At no time was the public at risk because the materials seized were 'non-infectious,' she added.

American authorities have reportedly indicated that there is no evidence that the vials contained dangerous materials.

Though Yao allegedly didn't produce proper documentation, the court documents state that border officers found in his car a package of forms containing information for importing biological materials.